Durbin-Schumer feud over whip position escalates

A feud between Sens. Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer escalated further on Tuesday, with spokesmen for the two Democratic leaders offering sharply different on-the-record accounts of whether the two men reached a power-sharing deal.

Durbin’s office insists Schumer agreed last week to support him as the party’s whip when current Minority Leader Harry Reid retires at the end of 2016.

The confrontation illustrates a yawning trust gap between the two former roommates and their aides.

Both sides agree that Durbin, of Illinois, said he would support Schumer, of New York, in his bid to replace Reid as the Democratic leader during an early morning conversation last Friday.

The point of contention focuses on the second part of their conversation: whether Schumer agreed to keep Durbin on as the party’s whip in 2017.

“When Sen. Durbin took Sen. Schumer aside and told him that he would not run for leader, the two senators agreed to support one another,” said Ben Marter, a spokesman for Durbin. “Schumer as leader and Durbin as whip. And they shook hands on it.”

“That never happened and they know it,” said Schumer spokesman Matt House.

The deepening conflict is an ominous sign for the post-Reid Senate, reviving a long-simmering rivalry between Schumer and Durbin, who lived in a Capitol Hill house together for years as they rose through the Democratic ranks.

Durbin has been the Democratic whip for 10 years, but Schumer is said to be open to elevating Sen. Patty Murray of Washington to the whip job when he takes over the Democratic caucus. Murray has declined to declare her intentions, but she hasn’t ruled out the possibility that she might pursue the whip job.

Reid’s retirement could also set up a battle for Schumer’s current job as head of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. Murray could also vie for that job, as could Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), current vice chairwoman of the DPCC, Senate Democrats’ main messaging arm.

Stabenow previously served as caucus secretary in the leadership’s No. 4 slot, where Murray serves now.